Sunday

Today we have had such a lovely day. This morning Papa Bee and I got lots of jobs done, then had some lunch and headed off for a walk. We went to Starbucks for some coffee then went for a lovely 'on a whim' walk round our local countryside, headed back via the park so Louie could have a play then back home for an al fresco dinner.

Today we had Roast Peppers stuffed with Risotto, it was delicious! Papa Bee was impressed, he hasn't had my special recipe before :) 

Then we wasted the evening away playing in the garden with Louie and his watering can, as he begged us to water his toes! He will certainly grow to be as tall as his Papa with the amount of water his feet have had today!

Hargraves Craft Fair

This is the craft fair that I am working towards, find more details at www.hargravesfairs.blogspot.com or follow my facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bee-Hive/153172804754354?ref=ts

Skirt

For the past few days, I have been working on a skirt for myself.

I ordered this fabric a few weeks ago, just half a yard, and fell in love with it so much that I ordered some more, to make myself a skirt. I also decided to incorporate the ribbon that matches it so well, by adding it around the bottom of the skirt. As I wasn't going to do a hidden zip, I decided to get a nice bright one to match the patterns on the skirt. I wanted an aqua blue but couldn't get one, so I settled for bright orange instead.

I didn't have a pattern, so just drew around a skirt which I already have which is a little bit big, so I figured that would account for the seam allowances.

 I cut the fabric and the lining, pinned it all, tacked it all and tried it on, it fit fine! But then it was bed time

The next day I got it all machined, the bright orange zip went in fine, no problems. That took me most of the evening. 

Then today I spent half an our hemming the bottom by hand and voila!

It isn't the neatest of skirts, and certainly not something I could make for someone else, but for me, I am happy with it! I can't wait to wear it when we go on holiday in September!

Friday

So Nana Bee has gone on holiday to visit family in Ireland, so Papa Bee, Mama Bee and Mr Bee are all at home on our own for once. It is nice when we get to be a little family on our own.

So first things first, there was NO food in the house at all. The freezers were empty, all but a pack of meatballs, and a pack of stewing beef. So we decided to visit Attfields Farm Shop in Whetstone to do our shopping.

Shopping at a farm shop is really important to me. I like to know where my food has come from, and would rather know that a local business has taken my money rather than a huge corporate supermarket. I have been searching for a farm shop local to us with no success. The nearest farm shop to us is about a mile away but it only sells eggs and potatoes, and they are a little hit and miss with the quality. We do shop there for our spuds and always pick up eggs when we go too, but the bag of spuds lasts us at least a month, so we don't visit that regularly.

When Dan and I went out for a meal last week, we went to Mai Yango, our favourite bar and there was a Leicestershire magazine that I sat and thumbed through. There was an advert for Attfields Farm Shop that looked like heaven, a proper little supermarket style farm shop. And with it only being in Whetstone, we had to check it out.

Even Papa Bee was impressed with the selection, we managed to do the majority of our shopping there, only needing to pick up a few things like rice from Sainsburys on the way home. So this week we have a menu ready. I did this so that I knew exactly what we needed to buy from the shops and not buy unnecessary items, or need to keep running to the shops every 5 mins.

So tonight, Papa Bee has made a gorgeous Chicken and Chorizo Paella, yum yum yummy!

It started off such a bright and sunny day, so once the nappies were washed they were hung out to dry on the line. Only for it to rain as soon as they were all out... typical! Hopefully they will dry anyway!

Whilst Louie was having his sleep I cracked on and got my skirt finished! I will write another post about that though so keep your eyes peeled for that one ;)

And this evening, we are having hot choc chocs with cream mmm, and watching My Family and Miranda! Perfect!

Playdough

Last night I decided that I wanted to make playdough for Louie, as I thought he might like to have a play and not put it in his mouth for a change. And knowing how easy that it is to make, I wasn't going to waste my time or money buying shop-bought play dough. I found this recipe for playdough at the blog Scented Sweetpeas, but I will tell you how to make it anyway.

1 Cup of Warm Water

1 Cup Plain Flour

1 Tsp Oil

2 Tsp Cream of Tartar

1/4 cup of Salt

Food Colouring

Mix the ingredients (excluding the food colouring) in a pan until they are thoroughly mixed. Put the pan on the head and keep stirring until it all comes together, the water has evaporated and you have a sticky, playdoughey mixture.

Divide the mixture up into the amount of colours you have (we only had blue...) and knead the food colouring in. We used just normal liquid colouring and we used an awful lot to get it blue.

I made mine the night before, wrapped it in cling film and put it in the bread bin and it should keep for a few days. Then you just have to play with it! 

Snail

Lion

Calke Abbey

Calke Abbey is one of our nearest National Trust sites and I have been itching to visit it for absolutely ages now, especially since becoming a member. So as I was doing nothing today, a completely free day, and Papa Bee was around and free too, I thought I would take us on a day trip to Calke Abbey. 

Mr Bee was really keen to explore, and since we were there early, we could only wander around the courtyards and stables so we just let him have a roam for an hour .

Tickles!

 Then we decided to waste some energy at the play park, it was a lovely little park, safe enough for Mr Bee to explore wherever he wanted, although he did get soaked on the slide that was wet :(

Ready to visit the House

 Then on our way back from the gardens, we saw a little tiny birdie having a bath in a puddle. He let us watch him for a good while before he flew away. He had a lovely wash and drink!

 Then we headed up to visit the church, where we looked around all of the old headstones from the Harpur family, (the family who owned Calke Abbey) and we found some beautiful engravings.

I loved this tree, its huge!

 After lunch, we finally headed off into the house. It was surprising how one side of the house seemed to be 'lived in' and one side completely deserted. Calke Abbey was handed over to the National Trust in 1985 and hasn't been touched since then. It was amazing to see all the old features, like the servants bells and the kitchen which hasn't changed since the 1920s.

Do you know what this is?

Derelict!

We all had such a lovely day, we will definitely go again some time as we loved the grounds and the wonders inside the house.